Maryland public schools delete Christmas from calendar

Christmas no longer exists in the Montgomery County school district in Maryland.
Kyle Olsen reports for EAGnews, Nov. 12, 2014, that the school district is stripping Christmas from its official calendar after Muslim parents complained. So the school board voted 7-1 to stop recognizing Christian and Jewish religious holidays. Although the schools will still have holidays in December, they will now be called “winter break” and “student holidays,” instead of Christmas and Yom Kippur.
But that isn’t enough to satisfy Muslims who demand recognition of and “parity” for the Muslim holiday of Eid.WTOP reports that Saqib Ali, co-chair of Equality for Eid, says, “Equality is really what we’re looking for. Simply saying we’re not going to call this Christmas, and we’re not going to call this Yom Kippur, and still closing the schools, that’s not equality.” CAIR isn’t happy either. Its representative Zainab Chaudry complains that “What’s really concerning to us is that similar conditions weren’t placed on any other faith community.”
According to NBC 4, school employee Samira Hussein has campaigned for 20 years to have the Muslim holiday added to the school calendar, saying “The Eid is just the same exact as Christmas day or Easter day or Yom Kippur.”

Michael Durso

School board member Michael Durso says unless the Muslims’ complaints are addressed, the district “comes off as insensitive, and I just think we cannot afford to be in that light.” Blah, blah, blah.
Durso is a former principal of four successive public schools. His phone no. is 301-924-3169; email address is Michael_A_Durso@mcpsmd.org.
Here’s contact info for Montgomery County public schools’ Board of Education:
President: Philip Kaufmann
850 Hungerford Drive, Room 123
Rockville, Maryland 20850
Tel: 301-279-3617
Fax: 301-279-3860
Email: boe@mcpsmd.org
See also:

Their response:
Smondrowski, Rebecca K (Rebecca_K_Smondrowski@mcpsmd.org)
Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I regret that due to the sheer volume of email I receive, I am not able to personally respond to each one; however if you don’t hear from me be assured that I will share all your concerns with staff and the Board for appropriate review. Please feel free to contact my office at 301-279-3617 if you need further assistance.

I’ll ASSUME they’re NOT including any other holidays,whether Jewish,Islamic,or whatever else. The way this sounds,they want the School Dist. to REMOVE Christmas,but ADD The Eid,or are they giving that fight up? I think if they want to have The Eid on their calendars,there Countries they can move to and live in that celebrate those holidays. America has had Christmas since BEFORE day one (While we were still in England),what did Muslims do back then? They celebrated their own holidays,just as we celebrated Christmas,before the commercialization of holidays. It doesn’t bother me at all if someone wants to observe holidays related… Read more »

These people are hellbent on cultural suicide. Education really does attract a lot of weird left-wing people. I was not personally suited to the profession, and I’m glad I’m out of it. And make no mistake: They have their ways of getting rid of politically and culturally conservative and/or libertarian people.

I just read Closing the Book on Santa Claus by Ron Chandler. It is a fictionalized narrative of why a Merry Christmas law is needed for our local schools. The story is about a father who tries to save his daughter’s holiday celebration after it is cancelled at the local school. He organizes a rally at city hall, but unexpected calamity prevails. Mr. Chandler shows why character education is as important to children as the memorization of facts and figures. I would recommend this book to other readers, both adults and children. It also includes four additional stories that will… Read more »